MIT Policy Hackathon: Network Censorship and Data Collection

The overarching theme for the Internet Policy challenge was “data collection for promoting a free and safe global internet.” It was sponsored by The Atlantic Council. We were provided with Internet traffic data from India, Indonesia, and Iran, all of whom either shut down the Internet or prevented access to certain websites in 2019. The data was scraped from the Ooni API.

Challenge Statement —

Starting with an exploration of the Ooni data and other types of available information, make recommendations on data collection and how it can better inform policy decisions for the global community and the targeted countries. This may include a discussion of what is lacking in current data sets, how data can be made more accessible for non-technical audiences beyond the presentation in the Ooni Explorer, or what data collection techniques may be less dangerous for people on the ground. You may want to consider known reported Internet events and whether or not you can see them in the Ooni data, as well as how easy it is to observe such activity, among other issues.

Goal —

Using Ooni data or other supplemental data sets, draft a policy brief on how the U.S. can pioneer better data collection techniques and practices to inform policy on Internet governance, especially as it relates to accessibility and censorship.

Tools —

• Microsoft Power BI

• Google sheets

My Contribution —

One of my main contributions was to study the visualization of the data, and to propose new visualizations using the same underlying Ooni data, which is particularly suited for cyber policymakers and cybersecurity experts. I sought ways to optimize the Ooni Explorer page, and created the data dashboard using Power BI (see video below).

Acknowledgements —

Special shout-out to my team members: Jeremiah Azurin, Amran Mamuye, and Selorm Tamakloe. It was a pleasure collaborating with you all! Also, thank you to The Atlantic Council for sponsoring this challenge and to the MIT Policy Hackathon team for organizing this event!